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Meet City's Fringe bloggers

Get to know Adam, Daniel, Frank, Jake, Leah, and Rebecca

Adam Lubitow

This is my third year covering the Rochester Fringe Festival
for City Newspaper, and while I've got a long list of shows I'm looking forward
to -- Remote Rochester, ShakesBLOOD, Hot Tub: The Musical, and the RIT Student
Honors Show currently top my list -- by now I've learned that my favorite acts
often end up being the ones that weren't even on my radar going into the
festival. It's the joy of discovery that keeps me excited and coming back to
Fringe each year.

I'm also hoping to check out the lineup of movies showing at
the festival's Pedestrian Drive-In at least a couple nights over the next 10
days. As programmer and writer for the ImageOut Film Festival, as well as City's
resident film critic, the rest of my time is spent loitering in Rochester's
many fine movie houses. As the week marches on, I'll mostly be surviving on a
steady diet of iced coffee, popcorn, and dreams, but as long as you don't mind
a likely-delirious, sleep-deprived response, feel free to shoot me a tweet @adamlubitow.

Daniel J. Kushner

Art in a familiar medium that challenges us to engage with
culture in a way we may not have otherwise has always piqued my interests.
There is perhaps no local festival that draws such a high concentration of artists
who ply their trade in this way than the Rochester Fringe Festival.

I'm especially excited about the influx of contemporary dance
performances that the festival brings, including works from New York City and
Milwaukee choreographers in "An Ode to Lovingly Imperfect Bipedals" and a
program from BIODANCE that shines a much-needed light on social justice issues.

Contemporary dance will also be an integral part of the
concert "Bach without Boundaries," in which violist Bridget Kinneary will
perform alongside dancer Missy Pfohl-Smith. The Fringe Festival presents
numerous opportunities to see multidisciplinary works that show how music and
visual art can inform one another, and this performance will certainly be one
to watch. Follow me on Twitter: @danieljkushner.

Frank De Blase

Welcome to my world, the underground; splendor in the light
fantastic; life on the edge; life on the fringe. If you know anything about me,
you know I dig shit that's out there, socially, emotionally dangerous, devoid
of convention, a genuine threat to pop culture and organized religion. Now not
everyone has the resources or the wherewithal to go hunting for the odd, the
unique, the fringe, but you do have the Rochester Fringe Festival where all
disciplines of artistic expression explode upon our downtown landscape in a
counter culture display. And we're not just talkin' about music either. I'm
aiming to see a pant-load of performances howsabout you?

Leah Stacy

I am a freelance journalist who eagerly anticipates the
Rochester Fringe Festival every year. Though my specialization is in theater, I
love any risky, new artistic work. In 2014, I produced my own show,
"Intrepid," at the Fringe -- but I look forward to being in the audience this
year. When I'm not freelancing, you can find me at Nazareth College
teaching media and communication classes or guzzling coffee at one of the many
fine shops around town. You can follow me on Twitter: @leahstacy.

Rebecca Rafferty

I'm looking forward to loads of shows (I'm reviewing 30 and
probably seeing even more), but especially the Arthur Shawcross-based drama,
"Mystic Castle"; "Conscience," a play about Rochesterian Bob Good on trial as
part of the Camden 28; "Sure-Minded Uncertainties," which promises a magical
exploration of the balance of nature and technology; "H | Histories," a musical
performance inspired by subatomic particles and genomic lineage; and the Roc
Bottom Slam Poetry Team's performance of "Growing Pains." Follow me on Twitter:
@rsrafferty.

Jake Clapp

It's hard not to be excited about the Rochester Fringe Festival. More than 500 events; unique settings; artists pushing the boundaries of what is considered "traditional" in their genres; the Fringe is a whirlwind of performances that you won't easily find anywhere else during the year. It's invigorating to see the Rochester arts community starting to embrace new, funky, and fun ideas. Plus it doesn't hurt that the fall weather is starting to creep in.

While I will be out and about covering my share of performances, as City's Arts & Entertainment editor, I will spend the next week mostly burning the midnight oil, coordinating coverage, tweeting, and helping our bloggers review their shows. It's going to be an exciting week, and we want to help you figure out how to make the most of the Fringe.

In This Guide...

In
our culture of reality TV shows and instant gratification, we've grown
accustomed to the novelty of becoming a fly on the wall in someone's life
anytime we flip to the right channel. Though we know by now reality TV isn't
raw and unrehearsed, it still feels that way -- and humans can't resist the
chance to watch one another in a vulnerable state.

I stopped in at The Little to check out RIT's Photo House, a grouping of photos displayed on the
walls of the theater's 2-5 lobby. Ranging widely in style, genre, and talent,
the showcase is a window into what current students are working on, presented
to the shifting audience of moviegoers.

Performed by RAPA Family Theatre, "James and the Giant
Peach: The Musical" comes from Tony-nominated composing team BenjPasek and Justin Paul ("A
Christmas Story: The Musical"). An adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl book,
the musical combines aspects of Dahl's book and the
1996 film, adding in a plethora of new songs (it should be noted, these aren't
the same Randy Newman compositions featured in the film) and condensing the story
for younger audiences.

"Think of this show as a series of dreams over the course of
the night," the audience was instructed before the mesmerizing, multi-sensory
performance of "Sure-Minded Uncertainties" at the TheatreROCS Stage on Sunday. Presented by CaveDogs (cavedogs.org),
the show featured large-scale shadow projections layered with video imagery and
an engaging original soundtrack.

My third day at the Rochester Fringe Festival was a wet and
wild one; throughout the course of my time at the festival, rain, chlorinated
water, and blood poured down on me at one point or another. My first stop was
an afternoon performance of "Hot Tub: The Musical."

My Saturday night at the Rochester Fringe Festival was full
of death, running the gamut of age. I was moved and impressed by "Percentage," presented by RAPA at the
School of the Arts' Black Box Theatre.

There are many beautiful things that happen during the Rochester
Fringe Festival, but one of my favorite parts is the heightened vulnerability
that emerges in the theater community. Theater is already a vulnerable art form, but with every
show there are budgets to consider, boards who must approve show runs, and difficult
casting decisions to be made.

PUSH Physical Theatre, the creation of Rochester-based
husband and wife team Darren and Heather Stevenson, bills itself as "physical
theater," but it is really so much more. Darren's spot-on humor is imbued with
philosophical depth and the pieces the company performed at the Rochester
Fringe Festival on Saturday moved the audience from hilarity to awe.

Brooklyn-based aerial dance troupe Grounded Aerial premiered a new work Friday night as part of the Rochester Fringe Festival's big Friday on the Fringe event. Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Manhattan Square was packed with people craning their necks to watch the dancers leap, flip, and glide off the side of the 21-story One HSBC Plaza building.

Garth Fagan Dance performed in its Chestnut Street studio on
Friday night as part of the Rochester Fringe Festival, showcasing Fagan's
latest work and premiering Norwood Pennewell's fifth
piece for the company. Watching the Rochester-based, internationally-acclaimed
company dance in the same place its members rehearse, create, and sweat
intensifies and personalizes the performance.

I spent the second night of the Rochester Fringe Festival taking
in two shows staged back-to-back at MuCCC. "Twain's Amazing Tales," put on by
James Landers and Classics Theater of Rochester, featured dramatic readings of
excerpts from "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven,"
which I have not read, and "What Stumped the Bluejays,"
which was part of Landers' Fringe offering last year.

As the crowds thinned after Grounded Aerial's sky-high
theatrics on the side of One HSBC Plaza Friday night, a woman in a bright red
shirt stood outside the nearby Xerox building yelling, "Free show here right
now!" It turned out her hawking strategy was a good one: I was there because I
planned to be, but many others filled the seats inside the auditorium because
they were searching for a next step in their Friday Fringe journey -- and "free"
is always a bonus.

With new works created by choreographers Heather Roffe and James Hansen, "Merged III" premiered at Geva Theatre Center on Thursday night. The performances will continue on Saturday, September 19, at 4 p.m., and Sunday, September 20, at 6:30 p.m. $10-$12.

I saw the very entertaining "Cabinet of Wonders"
in the packed Spiegeltent last night, which included
everything there's to like about the circus, without the animal cruelty. The
show began with the subtlest of clowns -- a wiggly goofball who worked the audience
with priceless facial expressions -- performing some tricks while the
husband-and-wife hosting team, Matt and Heidi Morgan, worked the audience with witty banter.

My 2015 Rochester Fringe experience began with sequins, high
heels, and wigs a-plenty when I took in RAPA's production of "La Cage Aux Folles" (helpful pronunciation tip: it sounds like "La Cahhge ah Fall") on the School of the Arts' Allen Main
Stage. Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's
Tony Award-winning musical is based on Jean Poiret's
original 1973 play.

The 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival runs Thursday, September 17, through Saturday, September 26, and City Newspaper will be out EVERY NIGHT of the festival, covering multiple shows. Check in first thing each morning for photos and reviews of the previous night's entertainment, listed below by date.